I bought the big square Scott Creek, I preferred their way of making hollow extrusions, and am glad I did. I figured I could make smaller pieces from a large box easier than I could make larger pieces from a smaller box.

After quite a few years of this clay addiction, my fingers are giving me trouble. Seems to be centered around gripping tools. Do any of you have good ideas for trimming tools that are more user friendly? I am thinking about whether wrapping the handles to make them larger in diameter, thus having to close my fingers less to grip them, might help.

I am also emboldened to start pouring me some plaster! Do any of you have suggestions for how to make an empty space in the center of big hump molds? If I oil the outside of a smaller bowl, can I sink it up to it's rim in the still fluid plaster filling the larger bowl, there by having a lighter mold of the larger bowl? And using less plaster.

I'm having trouble getting anywhere with this search. Not so very long ago there was a thread on making hump moulds from bisque slabs instead of plaster, with suggestions of how thick , etc. Do any of you remember who started it, or how to find it? Search mode just sent me in circles. TIA

I also use the cardboard slab the size of the kiln minus 2" as a fail safe when making large pieces. But...as to the firing on a slant, doesn't it come really close, or even touch, the elements? how can that survive the uneven heating?

I attended a tech school clay program for 2 years and there was a required class, History of Pottery. When I wandered into Otto's hometown , 6 months into my clay experience,I knew what an opportunity I had stumbled into. I was fortunate enough to spend a day with Otto.
I have zero art education from college, and I just seemed strange to me that someone who had specialized in ceramics in college didn't have knowledge of this.

I was flummoxed to hear a newly graduated teacher at the local High School tell me she has a Masters in fine arts with am emphasis in Ceramics. She has never thrown on a wheel, there is no wheel in the University arts program she just graduated from, and she was not familiar with the names Beatrice Woods or Otto Heino. I do not have any of her credentials, but I was dismayed. Would you have been?

I used a wheel like that in school. to solve your problem, I used foam board, like road side political signs are made of, ought to be some good use for all that littler! I took 3, made hinges from duct tape and sat the hinged 3 piece shield on the wheel base, outside of the wheel. while it did not catch everything, it caught lots. I just carefully picked it up and gathered the trimming off the base. Also, I expect you are right, you are having lots of trimmings right now. I make a point of trimming the freshly thrown pot as close as possible BEFORE wiring off the pot, really cuts down on trimming and helps bottoms start drying quicker, thus more evenly. With large bowls, I trim close and then cover the rim with several pages from an old phone book I keep by the wheel.

Although I am often trying a new glaze, I do work, glaze, in color groups so that when I set up a display it looks planned, not random, 2nd hand store looking. I will glaze several larger pieces and lots of smaller in about 4 different colors for a set up at a show. Next show may have different colors. but still in the blue green brown range. I will plan a set of pieces with the same design and glaze and do that in 2-3 different glazes.